NikoLAUS Steinbeis
I obtained my PhD in 2008 from the University of Leipzig. I then joined the University of Zurich as a postdoc before moving to the Max-Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences as a Senior Researcher in 2010 and a group leader in 2014. After research visits to the Weill Cornell Medical College and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute I became Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental Psychology in 2016 at the University of Leiden. In September 2017 I joined the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at UCL as a Principal Research Fellow. My work is funded by the Jacobs Foundation, the European Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. Since October 2021 I am Professor of Developmental Neuroscience.
Eleanor (Ellie) Braithwaite
I joined the DCP lab in November 2023 as a post-doctoral researcher. I have previously worked at the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD) at Birkbeck, University of London where my work has focussed on infant and toddlers’ neurocognitive development. I am interested in how young children’s neurocognitive abilities might impact the development of other skills, and how early experiences might relate to this. In my current role at the DCP lab I am working on the mechanisms that underpin children’s development of prosocial behaviour. Find Eleanor on Linkedin and Orcid.
Daniel (Dan) McGlade
I joined the Developmental Change and Plasticity Lab in 2021 as a PhD student on the Developmental Neuroscience and Mental Health programme. Prior to this, I completed an undergraduate degree in psychology at King’s College London where I opted to undertake an additional placement year working as a research assistant investigating the effects of trauma in a male prison population. After my undergrad I completed an MRes in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology across UCL, the Anna Freud Center and Yale University where I focused my masters thesis on the computational mechanisms of trust in borderline personality disorder. Currently, my interests relate to child maltreatment and the neurocomputational mechanisms underpinning learning, memory and social cognition across development and psychiatric disorders, and the process of leveraging these mechanisms to promote successful therapeutic change.
Jennifer (Jenny) Fielder
I joined the DCP Lab in 2022 as a PhD student on the UCL Wellcome PhD programme in Mental Health Science. I previously completed a Research Master’s in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and a BSc in Psychology at the University of Bath, during which I spent a placement year working as a Research Assistant at the Harvard Lab for Developmental Studies. I’m interested in (neuro)cognitive development and mental health resilience. My PhD focusses on how feelings of control over stressful events link to mental health, both in terms of resilience and symptoms of anxiety and depression. For more information you can email Jenny or find her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Julia Wiktorowicz
I joined the DCP Lab in August 2024 as a Research Assistant. I hold a BSc in Psychology from King’s College London and am completing an MSc in Technology of Language and Speech from UCL. My research interests focus on memory systems—particularly recall and forgetting—and the cognitive processes involved in managing multiple languages. I am fascinated by how memory retrieval, retention, and loss influence language processing, especially in multilingual individuals. For more information you can email Julia or find her on LinkedIn.
Alumni
Zoe (Yong Jing) Li
Zoe joined the DCP Lab in October 2021 as a masters student in cognitive neuroscience. She studied how social interactions shape our self-perception and the causal structure of social environments. She has recently begun her PhD with Philipp Kanske at the University of Dresden.
Francis Beveridge
Francis joined the DCP Lab in June 2021 as a research assistant exploring prosocial behaviours in young children. Currently, he is working as an assistant psychologist in a residential neurorehabilitation unit.
Zixi (Cici) Zhao
Cici joined the DCP Lab in September 2023 for her dissertation project as an BSc Psychology student. She studied how people adapt their coping strategies to stress when the perceived controllability of the situation changes. For more information see Cici’s LinkedIn or send her an email.
Rolando Bonandrini
Rolando joined the DCP Lab in June 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Milan-Bicocca, working on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of reading, with a specific focus on the interface between orthography and semantics.
CERI YAN TUNG NGAI
Ceri joined the DCP Lab in May 2023 for a rotation project with a focus on subjective feelings of control as part of the Ecological Brain Doctoral Training Programme.
KEERTANA GANESAN
Keertana joined the Lab in September 2018, where she studied mental health outcomes, attentional processes and motivation from a developmental perspective for her PhD. She is currently working as Employee Engagement Analytics Manager at the LEGO Group, overseeing employee engagement surveys. She also leads a research portfolio that explores various dimensions of employee engagement, such as leadership characteristics and team performance outcomes. See Keertana’s Twitter or LinkedIn for more info, or send her an Email.
Claire R. Smid
Claire joined the lab in 2018, where she studied the development and plasticity of decision-making during childhood for her PhD. She is currently enrolled on the Entrepreneur First cohort where she will be creating her own start-up. For more info, Email Claire or see her Twitter, LinkedIn, ResearchGate or ORCID.
Roser Cañigueral
Roser joined the DCP lab in June 2020 as a postdoctoral research associate where she investigated intra- and inter-individual variability in neural systems of cognitive control in children, using both task-based and resting-state fMRI data. Email Roser or find her on Twitter, LinkedIn, or GoogleScholar.
Abigail thompson
Abigail joined the DCP lab as a post-doctoral research associate. She is interested in both neurodiverse and neurotypical development and has a particular interest in the frontal lobes. Email Abi, or see her Twitter, LinkedIn, ResearchGate pages for more information.
Jinyu (Jessie) Shi
Jessie joined the DCP lab in September 2021 as a research assistant for the DCP Lab’s controllability study. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Oxford focusing on children’s books, syntactic structures and whether reading could help children acquire complex grammar. Email Jessie for more information.
Grace Revill
Grace joined the DCP lab in January 2022 for a 3-month rotation project as part of the MRC Doctoral Training Programme in Neuroscience and Mental Health.
Katherine Barron
Katherine joined the DCP lab in December 2020 for her dissertation project as an MSc Psychological Sciences student. Her research interests are in motivation, executive function development, and executive function in relation to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Emma Garling
Emma joined the DCP Lab as a masters student studying the MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL. Her dissertation project focused on whether behavioural training can alter white matter plasticity in children.
Veronika Pilarova
Veronika joined the Developmental Change and Plasticity Lab in 2021 as an MSc Cognitive Neuroscience student.
Oliver (Olly) Owrid
Joined the DCP lab in September 2020 as a research assistant. He is currently undergoing clinical training on the UCL Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
Eleni Georgiou
Joined the DCP Lab in January 2020 as a volunteer.
Robin Lau
Joined the DCP Lab in September 2020 as an intern student.
Paula Zahn
Joined the DCP lab in November 2020 as an intern.
Elize (Hau Ching) Wu
Final year student on the BSc Psychology and Language Sciences course at UCL, who joined the lab in August 2020 for her dissertation.
Ella Ucer
Final year undergraduate student at UCL, who joined the DCP Lab in September 2020 as part of her dissertation.
Chongyu (Xiao) Qin
Joined the lab for a 3-month project as part of the Doctoral Training Program called the Ecological Brain in 2020.
Harriet Phillips
Harriet joined the lab as a research assistant in September 2018 and is now a Research Project Manager at the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit at UCL. Find Harriet on LinkedIn or send her an email.
Somya IQBAL
Somya joined the DCP lab in February 2018 as a Research Assistant.
Elle Ho
Joined the DCP lab in August 2019 as a final year undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Language Sciences.
Rose (Yiyan) Wang
Was an exchange student studying Psychology and Economics from the College of William and Mary, who conducted a research project at the lab in 2019.
Juliette Westbrook
Undergraduate student in experimental psychology at Oxford, who completed her final year research project in the Developmental Neuroscience lab in 2019, looking at how decision making and risk taking changes with age in adolescents.
Elisa Buchberger
Master’s student from Humboldt University Berlin who joined the DCP Lab in April 2019 to conduct her thesis.
Clara Teusen
Joined the Lab in April 2019 for a six-month internship funded by the Exposé-Stipend of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. She finished her PhD thesis at the Institute of General Practice and Health Services Research at the Technical University in Munich which she will be defending in January 2025. Currently she is working as a clinical psychotherapist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Ellina Guijt
Visiting research MSc student from Leiden University who joined the DCP Lab in January 2019 until April 2019.
Sebastijan Veselic
PhD student on rotation as part of the ecological brain programme in 2018.
Margot Schel
Former postdoctoral researcher now works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Leiden University.
Ferdinand Hoffmann
Former PhD student now works as postdoctoral researcher at the Charite Berlin
Charlotte Grosse WiesmANN
Former PhD student now works as Independent Group Leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences